Green Recipes

I have been holding back so much info from you all, I'm sorry!! Here are some great recipes that we are using at our house to be green and save green!

I have seen many recipes for homemade laundry soap floating around the Internet, and I finally tried it out. I wish I had known about this years ago!! It is easy to make, works great, and is so incredibly inexpensive it seems too good to be true, but it's not! Here is the recipe that I used laundry soap

Try it out and tell me what you think.

Also, I made our own toothpaste. I had heard a long time ago that Fluoride wasn't good for you, but hadn't taken the time to do much research. Thankfully I have a friend that loves to investigate these things and share all her knowledge :-)) You can check out Aprils blog here. She doesn't have the fluoride info on her blog yet, so I'll just forward on the video she found. Go here to watch a video on how fluoride got into our drinking water and what you need to know about it.

After watching the video my husband threw out the toothpaste, and so I was forced to finally make toothpaste like I have been intending for years. Here is the recipe I used. I suggest using a bit less salt. We all like it, well dd is having a little fit, but I think she'll come around. It is very similar to arm and hammer toothpaste. We used freecycled baby food jars that each person got to decorate. I think the kids like having their own "special" toothpaste, so that helped in the transition.

Again I'd love to hear what you think if you make it.

A Very Good Read

Do you dream of homesteading? Or just like reading about crazy people who do? Well, if either of these apply to you, or you just do everything people tell you then you should read this book!

Jenna Woginrich wrote the book "Made from Scratch, Discovering the Pleasures of a Homemade Life." It is a quick read that really got me excited again about having our own place. Not that that took a lot of doing. She quickly goes over gardening, bee keeping, chickens, packing with dogs, and more. Jenna was just 26 when she wrote this and was living in Sandpoint Idaho, which happens to just be 80 miles north of where my hubby and I met!!

She also has a blog that is fun to read www.coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com . She is young and sarcastic, which tends to be my favorite to read!

Check your library, they probably have it, that's where I found my copy!!

If you read it be sure to let me know what you think!

blah, blah, blogging

I admit, I have been slacking. It's not that I don't have anything to write about. It's that I have too much. I think I should just do a little each day. I'll work on it, just for D's sake at least!!

So tonight I will tell of ten things I have been thinking of blogging about lately.

1. A new website I found that is very cool www.poissonrouge.com it is a great kids game. Seriously let your kids mess around on that!

2. Where does God want us to move?? He knows the desires of our hearts, but what if our desires are selfish????

3. I so love homeschooling! It is AWESOME to watch your kids learn, and they think it's fun at the same time, bonus!

4. I love the library. Wherever we move, they must have a library. Ok, maybe not, as long as I have DSL. But a fantastic library would be a huge bonus!!

5.Friends; aren't they great, hard, frustrating, inspiring, tiring, loving, funny, bad company, good company, etc.

6. Facebook. I am so loving Facebook!! I feel like I start my day with all my buddies!!

7. It's almost my birthday and I am at the age where I am starting to forget my age. I never thought that would happen, but it does, TO EVERYONE!

8. I'm really glad Elijah got Legos for his birthday, because I really like playing with them!

9. We are learning to play chess at our house. I have always wanted to learn but just didn't for some reason and now Ryan has taught me and I in turn taught the kids and we are having a blast! I'm sure we have a lot to learn in the way of strategy, but for now we are all enjoying playing with each other.

10. Obama is now our President. I see the good and the scary. My heart is heavy for the nation. I pray that there will be many positive surprise this year and that history will prove that G.W. Bush was a good president, he just wasn't our most eloquent. I am glad for him that he gets a break now.

I will post more as I think of it. I'd hate for my readers to become bored!

What is your child being taught?

If you have children please watch this video. It is not meant to condemn anyone, but rather to just get you thinking. It is easy for us to just blindly do what we have always done.

God has recently showed me that we are like frogs in a pot of water and the temp is slowly being brought up so that we don't even notice it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRGZLSVph3A

Sophie has a new hobby, jumping rope! She has been asking for one for a while now and the other day I found a good deal on a good quality one so we HAD to get it.

This girl so impress' me. She is a natural athlete. In the past week she has jumped during most of her free time. She can now jump forwards, in a couple different fashions, backwards, with her eyes closed, while turning in a circle and is working on new tricks all the time.

I wanted to show her some new tricks so we checked out youtube. Check out this video for some awesome jump roping!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtIPH7lUPBk&feature=related

It reminds me of my cheerleading days! I'll have to upload some video of her soon.

Joy is 3 months old today!!

Isn't she cute!! My Joy! I can't believe she is three months old already!

She is about the easiest baby you can imagine. She loves to smile at her brother and sister all the time and now is working hard on talking to us! It is sad to see her grow up so fast, but I know good times will come.

Thanking Jesus for my babies today!! What a blessing!

FIREPROOF

Ryan and I just got home from watching Fireproof. It was such a great movie! My eyes are still incredibly swollen and hurting. Sitting here starring at the computer isn't helping all that much!

I highly suggest this movie to everyone!! Even if you aren't married yet, it gives you a lot to think about. You can tell that the actors aren't all that experienced, save Kirk Cameron of course. But all together it really is a great movie!

If you follow the link above you can watch the trailer and find out much more about it. Take a look, see what you think.

My New Toy!!

Do you like?? I have visions of the beach, or maybe just a small town, groceries in the back, a big sun hat....

Ryan says I look really "special" on my bike! It does need a little tlc, but for the most part it is in really nice shape! It was a freecycle find, it was the first post that I actually begged for!

She needs a name, any thoughts??????

New Blog Up and Running!!

Yeah, it's up, it's running, it's taking off!! www.grandfamilyfun.com

I had a thought about doing this website a couple of months ago, did some research and now here it is!

I am very excited about all of the positive feedback I have been getting, although I find myself a bit behind in all I need to do now! I figured I would get the word out and really get the site some traffic,and then find the advertisers. Well, they have come a knockin!! In just my first few days of really being up I had someone contact me from one of the largest business' in town! Her mom had emailed her the site and she thought it was great, WOW!

There is so much to learn now. I am trying to figure out how much to charge for advertising. I didn't think I'd have to have this all figured out yet, but I have a meeting on Monday to present my site to this BIG company!! What am I going to wear???

I have also been asked to be a part of Safe Kids, a program here in town that like the name says teaches kids about safety. I have been invited to give a presentation to their group of about 100 different agencies. WOW, what am I going to wear? (can you tell this is a recurring thought here?)

It is awesome to see God move in such a way. I feel like his blessings are just pouring down over my new project.

Thanks for listening to all of my excitement!! My poor mom, I keep calling her in my excitement. You know you want someone to celebrate with and who gets more excited about a person's accomplishments than there mommy??

Please take a moment to check out my site, email it to all your friends, subscribe, thank you for your support!! The readers of this blog really gave me the confidence to start the other, thank you!!

Self Analysis

I really enjoy looking deeply into the why of almost everything I do. Too many years working at a self help group I suppose. (oops, there I go again.)

Anywho, I have recently realized something about myself. I'm sure that if you know me you have already realized this about me, but it just finally clicked over here.

I love a challenge, I love puzzles and learning new things. Only thing is as soon as it becomes easy I don't find it all that interesting anymore.

This habit helps to explain my gigantic craft collection, various jobs, tons of hobbies, (and I'm thinking maybe this explains all the boyfriends, hmmm).

I remember in grade school we had to write about what we wanted to be when we grew up. I had a list of about 50 things, my goal was to have a new job each week so that i could try it all. Later in High School I took a skills test to see what I would be good at to help with career planning. It was such a mess, basically it said that I would be good at everything but medicine. (See tweets about sickness)

Like all traits that God has gifted us with this can either be a hindrance or a blessing. When I look at mothering and especially homeschooling I see this as a huge blessing!! It doesn't' bother me in the slightest to dive into a new project each week, learn a ton about it and then move on.

I have often thought that it would be great to start up business' (i have a ton of ideas rolling around my noggin) get them going and then have someone else run them. The more I analyze my giftings and the way God has wired me I think that this might not be such a bad idea. Now, just to build the capital to get the ball rolling. hmmm

One way that this habit does hinder me is with past college attempts. I am all gung ho at first, reading everything, get straight A's and then it gets boring, I slack off, lose interest and voila C's. I did attend three different colleges and changed majors five times. Thankfully God has finally given me peace about this as well. I plan to just homeschool myself along with my kids. I love to learn, but a class just doesn't go fast enough for me. Not that I am sooo brilliant, they just don't keep my attention.

Thanks for reading my observations!! I'm off to learn something new today, html I think.

The Election..............

10 Predictions, Regardless of Who Wins the Election

1. The Bible will still have the answers.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost who come to Him.

I recieved this in an email today. I had to share it as it is sooo true!
Don't forget to vote!

Simple Fun

We had a great night of simple fun the other evening. We all rode our bikes (Joy in the front pack) around campus until we found a great grassy spot under a huge tree. I threw down a blanket and we had a sweet time of reading. Currently we are reading about David Livingstone and his missionary work in Africa during the mid 1800's. It is amazing where he went and how long it took him!!

It was a great evening even though the mosquitos were after us and Ryan had to make a mad dash with Elijah to a bathroom at one point.

I don't think we'll be able to do it again until spring. I'll be working on planning some more simple fun while we wait for warmer weather once again.

Here is a great link to inspire some simple thoughts for your day.

Enjoy!!

Goals, continued

If you haven't read my previous goal post, go here first.

Sorry for taking so long to post these. We decided to rearrange our house at the last minute. It has made for two days of straight work, and still a big mess to clean up! I'm taking a break though and enjoying my old journal.

First page in journal

Goals, there are 53 written here, but I won't bore you with them all, here are the first 20 I wrote:

1. Adopt at least one child

2. Be a foster parent

3. Own a horse farm

4. Graduate from college

5. Own a matching pickup and trailer

6. Ride in a rodeo or two ( I really love roping!!)

7. Learn to rope/run barrels

8. Ride both hunter/Jump and Show Jumping classes

9. Do volunteer work with kids

10. Design and build my own arena and pens

11. Get married - only once

12. Ride horses in Ireland

13. Swim in all four of the oceans

14. Learn how to drive a tractor

15. Teach a class

16. Wear a size 7

17. Learn to sew

18. Learn to cook well

19. Live in Texas

20. Work on a ranch



Oh, these bring back many memories and quite a few smiles! Can you tell I love horses??? That is one part of my life that has been put on hold and I can't wait to have it back!

The other 33 are pretty funny as well. I added to the list over a few years and some entries are definitely a bit more dreamy than the rest like #37 End Racism.

I am glad to say that I have completed several of the goals on my list. And many of the goals are still dear to my heart, like #1 (although I'm thinking more than one now!!).

My goal list has inspired me to have the family make a goal sheet over the next week. I'll let you know what we come up with!

Grass Clippings

Here in NE North Dakota we don't have too many beautiful wild flowers. We do have many wonderful native grasses though! We went out collecting some the other day. I have them drying downstairs now waiting for their perfect use. This is our new Caravan!! Thanks to the Grammies who both pitched in to buy this indispensable piece of traveling equipment for our family!!

Goals

I have been doing a lot of thinking about a journal that I started keeping in high school. I haven't looked through it lately, but I know some of the things that are in it and I dearly love the cover!

One thing that I did after reading an article about writing your life goals, was to do just that. I wrote my life goals. I am anxious to go back and reread what I wrote at that time, but before I do that I thought it would be fun to write my goals now and compare the two.

Sooo, here are some of my present goals, and tomorrow I will write what I found in my journal!!

1. To live for the Lord each day
2. To be a blessing to my family each day, which would take care of # as well I suppose
3. get my new blog up and running and generating an income
4. get rid of the 20lbs I found in North Dakota!!
5. be a better friend, looking more to give than to receive
6. speak boldly about Christ
7. craft more!!!!
8. organize my office, and then keep it like that on a daily basis
9. be more patient, esp with hubby and kids
10. do a triathlon
11. exercise daily!!
12. have a daily time with the Lord, consistently!!
13. write at least 4x a week, fiction at least once a month
14. pay off student loans ASAP! be debt free- until we buy a home of course!!

I'll stop here. I do have many long term goals, like travel the world, etc. I think most of those goals are in my journal already!! They haven't changed too much.

Now that I've written my list I am even more excited to go find my other one!! See you tomorrow!!

Bye, bye college life!

Ryan graduates on December 19th!! I can't believe how close that really is, just a little over two months from now! Already he has finished his really hard class up and is just doing Photography until the end of the semester. He is instructing though, so he is still busy, but the lack of homework has already made such a difference at our house.

I'm sure you all will be hearing about this quite a bit in the next several months, but our life has been so out of balance these past 5 1/2 yrs. We have missed Ryan. The kids are use to it because it is all they have known, but it is still hard to have him gone so much.

This weekend we were able to take a family drive and just chill out without the pressure of homework looming over Ryan. What a breath of fresh air that was!

Not only are we getting much more time together as a family, Ryan and I have been able to spend our late nights together. This is a huge change from before when I would just watch tv waiting for him to get done studying at midnight!

I am a happy women!! Like I said, I'm sure you will be hearing much more about my new exciting life!!

Poem for the Day

SONG FOR A FIFTH CHILD

(although I think it should say third)

Mother, O mother, come shake out your cloth!

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing and butter the bread,

Sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blisfully rocking!

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(Pat-a-cake, darling and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

But i'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.)

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby. Babies don't keep.

Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

My Favorite Website

If you've talked to me for longer than ten minutes in the past 5 months you've probably already heard the news, but if you haven't listen up!!

Go, right now, ok, right after you read this to www.moneysavingmom.com . Crystal who writes this blog is awesome!! And her website is full of soooo much great info you simply must visit. Due to this website my family has saved over $200 on diapers/shampoo/toothpaste/etc over the past six months, we receive several magazines for FREE, and today I just signed up for two free razors one for Ryan and one for myself. She also has so much information to help you make money from home. I'm telling you, if you have five extra minutes a day visit this website, you won't be sorry!!

I'm off to sleep now, but I just had to share!!

Another Baby????

Just when I think I'm starting to look good again a seven year old dashes my dreams! The neighbor girl just asked me if I am going to have another baby. I said, "no, do I look like it (said in my nicest tone I swear)" "ya, kinda she said, just a little."

Well bummer, now the decision do I go eat ice cream and try to drowned my sorrow, or pump out 50 crunches. I think I'll go for the crunches since I just finished off the Kashi cookie that came in the mail!

Ice Cream

If you like ice cream you had better check this out, just click here and you'll be in for a big surprise!! I'd love to hear what you think!